BT releases Smart Talk app to counter Skype and Viber

BT just released its Smart Talk app that allows BT customers to make calls from their mobile phone at the price of their landline calling plan. For some customers, that means they can now make free calls on their mobile.

How it works: you download the app and tell the app your home phone number. From then on, you can place calls from the mobile app at prices of your home calling plan.

The new app comes as telecoms all over Europe are seeing profitability decline because of increased competition from apps like Viber and Skype, aggressive virtual operators like Free and Mobile Vikings, and as some think, just way too many telecoms in Europe.

The app works anywhere in the world, as long as you have an internet connection (wifi or mobile). So for instance as a business traveller, you can hook up to the hotel wifi and call your family at the rates of a local, landline call. If your home plan includes free evening or weekend calls, calls from within the app are free too in weekends and evenings.

In a reaction, John Petter, managing director at BT said that he understood that his competitors “would not be celebrating”, but that the new app was about “giving customers what they are asking for”.